< Amos 4 >
1 Hear this word, ye cows of Bashan, who are in the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their lords, Bring, and let us drink.
2 The lord Jehovah has sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that they shall take you away with hooks, and your residue with fish-hooks.
3 And ye shall go out at the breaches, each one straight before her, and ye shall cast yourselves into Harmon, says Jehovah.
4 Come to Bethel and transgress, to Gilgal and multiply transgression. And bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes every three days.
5 And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, and publish them. For this pleases you, O ye sons of Israel, says the lord Jehovah.
6 And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places, yet ye have not returned to me, says Jehovah.
7 And I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest. And I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city. One piece was rained upon, and the piece upon which it did not rain withered.
8 So two or three cities wandered to one city to drink water, and were not satisfied. Yet ye have not returned to me, says Jehovah.
9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew. The multitude of your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees the palmer-worm has devoured. Yet ye have not returned to me, says Jehovah.
10 I have sent among you the pestilence according to the manner of Egypt. I have slain your young men with the sword, and have carried away your horses, and I have made the stench of your camp to come up even into your nostrils. Yet ye have not returned to me, says Jehovah.
11 I have overthrown cities among you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a brand plucked out of the burning. Yet ye have not returned to me, says Jehovah.
12 Therefore thus I will do to thee, O Israel, and because I will do this to thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
13 For, lo, he who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads upon the high places of the earth-Jehovah, the God of hosts, is his name.